Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2020 Apr 1;17(7):2404.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph17072404.

Contact Allergy-Emerging Allergens and Public Health Impact

Wolfgang Uter  1 , Thomas Werfel  2 , Jean-Pierre Lepoittevin  3 , Ian R White  4
Affiliations
Review

Contact Allergy-Emerging Allergens and Public Health Impact

Wolfgang Uter et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

Contact allergy (sensitisation) and allergic contact dermatitis (ACD) resulting from it have a considerable public health impact. For the present review, all pertinent articles were systematically searched via Medline and Web of Science™; additionally, all available issues of the journals "Contact Dermatitis" and "Dermatitis" were manually searched, covering the years 2018-2019, thereby extending and re-focusing a previous similar review. New allergens, or previously described allergens found in a new exposure context or of other current importance, are described in sections according to substance classes, e.g., metals, preservatives, fragrances. As a common finding in many investigations, a lack of information on product composition has been noted, for instance, regarding a newly described allergen in canvas shoes (dimethylthiocarbamylbenzothiazole sulfide) and, most notably, absence of co-operation from manufacturers of glucose-monitoring devices and insulin pumps, respectively. These latter devices have been shown to cause severe ACD in a considerable number of diabetic patients caused by the liberation of isobornyl acrylate and N,N'-dimethylacrylamide, respectively, as demonstrated by an international collaboration between dermatologists and chemists. Improved and complete ingredient labelling for all types of products, and not just cosmetics, must be put on the legislative agenda.

Keywords: allergic contact dermatitis; contact allergy; contact sensitisation; epidemiology; prevention; review.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Suitable cosmetovigilance complements contact allergy surveillance. X represents any chemical substance (or perhaps natural mixture). P (xyz), any product containing the substances X, Y and Z (taken from [6]).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Distribution of measurements of nickel (Ni) release after immersion according to EN 1811:2011, stratified for four different parts. The curve represents the estimated cumulative distribution function of the measurements, as obtained from Kaplan–Meier analysis. Left-censored measurements, i.e., those with a missing measurement which has been replaced with the limit of quantification of the respective sample, found in 49.3% of all samples, are indicated by short vertical bars (taken from [11]).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Diepgen T.L., Ofenloch R.F., Bruze M., Bertuccio P., Cazzaniga S., Coenraads P.-J., Elsner P., Gonçalo M., Svensson Å., Naldi L. Prevalence of contact allergy in the general population in different European regions. Br. J. Derm. 2016;174:319–329. doi: 10.1111/bjd.14167. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Alinaghi F., Bennike N.H., Egeberg A., Thyssen J.P., Johansen J.D. Prevalence of contact allergy in the general population: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Contact Derm. 2019;80:77–85. doi: 10.1111/cod.13119. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Fischer L.A., Menné T., Voelund A., Johansen J.D. Can exposure limitations for well-known contact allergens be simplified? An analysis of dose-response patch test data. Contact Derm. 2011;64:337–342. doi: 10.1111/j.1600-0536.2011.01876.x. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Langen U., Schmitz R., Steppuhng H. Häufigkeit allergischer erkrankungen in Deutschland ergebnisse der studie zur gesundheit erwachsener in Deutschland (DEGS1) Bundesgesundheitsblatt Gesundh. Gesundh. 2013;56:698–706. doi: 10.1007/s00103-012-1652-7. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Uter W., Werfel T., White I.R., Johansen J.D. Contact allergy: A review of current problems from a clinical perspective. Int. J. Env. Res. Public Health. 2018;15:1108. doi: 10.3390/ijerph15061108. - DOI - PMC - PubMed